The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

FINLAND: TOrOGEAPHY. 219Forsby, on the Grulf of Finland. The people marry only amongst themselves,and have retained both their speech and national customs, thus keeping entirelyaloof from the surrounding Finns.Elsewhere the Swedes are met only in isolatedgroups, generally mixing with the natives, and in the government of Nylandspeaking both Finnish and Swedish. The Swedes number altogether about 280,000.Formerly the educated Finns affected to despise their native speech, looking onit as a sort of provincial patois, although it possessed a translation of the Bibleso early as 1548. But a national revival has since taken place, partly due to theUniversity of Abo, and Finnish literature is now emancipated from Scandinaviantutelage. From this time both races have enjoyed absolutely ecpial privileges, andsince 18G8 all schoolmasters, since 1872 all officials, have been bound to know Finnish.The earliest habitations of the Finns were little more than holes in the groundroofed over. These were succeeded by the so-called kotas, circular enclosuresformed by poles resting against the trunk of a tree, some of which are still used aspenthouses. But as dwellings they were rej^laced by the pbrte, resembling theBussian izba, and formed by pine stems propped one against the other, withoutwindows or flues beyond narrow fissures, and a trap under the roof to let thesmoke escape. An oven, a few utensils, cribs or troughs for the domestic animals,such was the only furniture of hovels where man and beast lived huddled together.Some of these primitive dwellings, such as they are described in the Kareliansongs, are still met ; but most of them have been enlarged, improved, separatedfrom the stables, and in other respects adapted to the requirements of a morecivilised existence.Topography.The oldest Finnish towns, Abo, Tavastehus, "Wiborg, were grouped round thestrongholds erected to protect the invaders and the Christian converts. In thenorth the country, possessing no strategicimportance, was openly settled, stationsbeing established at the river mouths exclusively for purposes of barter.Tornea, facing the Swedish Haparanda across a branch of the river Torneli, is theoutport of the Lapps, where they come to sell their fish and reindeer tongues.Uleaborg, the Finnish Ulu, is a far more important place, being the outlet for theresin, tar, and timber brought down by the river Ule;i (Ulu Joki). Farthersouth, Brahestad (Brahin) has outstripped the old Swedish town of Gamin Karleby,and on the same coast of the Gulf of Bothnia are the ports of Jacobstad, orPietasaari, Ny Karleby, Vasa, Niholaistad, Christineatad, Bjorneborg, and Nystad,the last mentioned connected by submarine cable with Sweden.The oldest city in Finland is Abo (Turku), for centuries the bulwark of theSwedish possessions on the east coast of the Baltic. Here was raised their firststronghold, Abohus, which still commands the mouth of the Aura-joki below thetown. Its roadstead, sheltered on the west by a group of islets and rocks, isconveniently situated near the south-west corner of the land, between the Grulfs ofBothnia and Finland, and has consequently become one of the chief ports in thesewaters. Banking second in population, it takes the third place as a commercial